The Mighty Nimbus Interview

If you're looking for heavy, you have definitely come to the right place because Mighty Nimbus is all kinds of heavy like you can't imagine. This band will run you over like an industrial sized CAT bulldozer after the operator has had 12 beers. Step back in awe or you're sure get plowed into the ground.

The Gauntlet: The band has been together now for two and a half years. How has the band grown together as musicians in this time period? Do you still have the same feelings that you had when the band started?

Big Andy Campbell: Well, technically we have been together for 2.5 years; technically. However, the band that recorded the album has never played a show together. We toured a little bit with Dan during our Emissions run last summer, but we have never played a show with Larson. We brought Dan and Erik in with the idea TMN was a "side-project" for ATP and SWS. However, prior engagements for Dan and Erik led us down a different path; therefore, we had to find other musicians to fill the void. We hooked up with Alex Petrovich from Canadian stoner rocker's Mister Bones and man, he fit right in both musically and personally. The band: Pete, Dinis, Alex, and myself, have all grown together as musicians. We all have such diverse musical backgrounds that it makes writing much easier and entertaining. So, we are all very excited to start working on music for the second album; so far, real good. Our band has such a family atmosphere which makes writing and bouncing ideas off each other so much easier. We are a family first and a band second.

The Gauntlet: Recently, the band was out on the first Candlelight Records tour. How did you feel about the other artists on that tour? Were crowd responses to your set fairly positive?
What do you feel was the highlight of those performances?

Big Andy Campbell: The tour was a huge success for TMN and for Candlelight. It was such an honor to work with Entombed, Crowbar, and Pro-Pain. We grew up listening to all these bands and they all have tremendous influences on our music and attitude. The best part of the tour was simply the way everyone got along. Man, it was like one big, happy family out there. It was such a rarity to bond like that, so quickly, so positively. We learned a lot being out with those guys. The crowd response to us was very positive. I think the crowd fed off our energy that we give out each night and vice versa. A lot of people describe our sound as a combination of Entombed and Crowbar so, yea, we fit right in. The highlight of the tour, for me, was playing "Born to Late" (St. Vitus cover) with Uffe (entombed) on guitar and Kirk (crowbar) on vocals. So, hell, we had three guitar players, a bass player, a drummer, and two singers on stage at one time paying homage to St. Vitus. It was just such an honor to look out from behind my kit to see Uffe and Kirk on the same stage rocken' out.

The Gauntlet: Your album was recorded in only 24 hours. How do you feel about the result? Is it more comfortable for the band to go in and bash the tracks out? Is there anything that you would change about the way you approached the recording?

Big Andy Campbell: We recorded the album at Dinis's house in Minneapolis with the help of our good friend, Killer Keith Nystrom. I love the way the record turned out; so huge, so heavy. Erik had to learn like 7 songs in 2 or 3 days while Dan was still writing lyrics as we tracked; hell, while he tracked. It was a very loose, comfortable atmosphere. For the new record, we are going back to Dinis's house, back to that atmosphere.

The Gauntlet: Sound-wise, the production on the record is fairly good for a live recording. How long did the band spend of finding tones in the studio? Was the band using any different gear in the studio than you would normally use in a live situation?

Big Andy Campbell: For the recording, Pete, Dinis, and I played in the drum room while their amps were in another. So, not the typical, ideal recording situation. Of course we got some guitar sound to leak over on the overheads but that's what we were looking for. We wanted something raw; something different, I guess. We don't play pretty music so why try to dress it up by isolating the guitars and doing take after take after take. After drums/bass were recorded, Pete went in and played the solo tracks and Dan did the vocals. We ended up using a lot of the guitar "scratch-tracks" because it was the feeling we were trying to capture, not the pristine sound of an isolated guitar. Basically, the whole recording process was new to all of us; we rolled with it and I think the final product turned out pretty well.

The Gauntlet: Your music grabs a bit from several heavy different styles and turns it into something that is undeniably heavy, but hard to pin into a specific genre. Is it your goal to simply make music as heavy as you possibly can while thinking outside of the box?

Big Andy Campbell: I like to read reviews and find the different "categories" people try to label us. Doom, stoner rock, metal, or the catch-all: stoner-doom-metal. Pete and Dinis do the majority of the song writing or I should say riff writing. I write all my drum parts and Dan did all his lyrics. That was the glory of TMN. Pete would introduce a riff and then-because of our palette of musical backgrounds-the songs would venture off into a different direction never imagined by others. That's why we can have a doom song that ends with a blues riff. So, yea, I think we write music, heavy music; we aren't trying to fit any one mold or classification. We aren't trying to reinvent the wheel either. Basically, we are all tired of hearing BS on the radio and seeing bands we once liked take a turn for the worse just to sell a few albums. People say, "You guys sound like Sabbath," or "you sound like Down," but they never say, "You sound like Nickelback or Godsmack." So, until some asshole says we sound like Godsmack, we'll continue cranking out heavy-ass songs.

The Gauntlet: Some journalists have referred to this band as a -supergroup, considering the prominent underground acts that the various members had previously performed with. Do you as a band view yourselves to be a supergroup?

Big Andy Campbell: We are by no means a "supergroup." Actually, I am looking forward to the day when people talk about The Mighty Nimbus as The Mighty Nimbus and not The Sixty-Watt-Thunderpussys. I am not denying the impact that SWS and ATP has on our musical stylings; those are two great bands. Realistically, our line-up now consists of only one "supergroup" member, our lead guitar player Pete, and he played drums for SWS for one album. I love it when people say we sound nothing like ATP or SWS because, guess what people, we aren't. We do, however, sound a lot like The Mighty Nimbus-weird.

The Gauntlet: What is the single most important thing that you have learned since joining the band? How do you feel this has helped the band to grow as artists?

Big Andy Campbell: This may sound crazy, but the most important thing I learned since joining the band is how to play the drums. I had never played the drums before Pete wanted to start TMN. Since Pete is my brother, he has always been the drummer in the family so there was no need for me to play drums. But, for some strange notion, Pete decided that he wanted to play guitar and that I should play drums. I had never picked up a stick before the conception of TMN. What about Chaos Witch right? Well, it was basically a ploy to embellish the "supergroup" moniker. Hell, none of us really play the instrument we play in TMN. Pete is a drummer; Dinis is a guitar player; Alex is left-handed (which makes him strange), and I am a football player. That is the beauty of Nimbus; we are forever growing as musicians and our friendship as a group grows parallel.

The Gauntlet: What is next on the band's touring agenda? Are you a band that really enjoys being out on the road? Do you find the time away from your homes to be difficult?

Big Andy Campbell: Right now, we are working on a European Tour for December of 2005. Being out on the road is fun for me. I get to play the drums everyday. When I am at home, I have to drive 6-hours to play a drum kit. Plus, I get to experience new and interesting things with my brothers; that is the glory of touring. All of us have such different lives. For me, I am trying to finish up my undergraduate degree in education. Also, I am a college football/strength & conditioning coach so trying to find time to get out is a real challenge. We enjoy getting out, though. We actually referred to the Candlelight tour as vacation because it was so much fun. Yea, we didn't make any money but it was a blast night in and night out. We are planning our European "Vacation" right now for December/January-so, be on the look out for more info on that.

The Gauntlet: Who in the group is the most musical? Do you see yourselves as musicians before anything else or do you believe that is taking your art too seriously?

Big Andy Campbell: I think Pete is the most musical in the group. The guy excels at any instrument he picks up. The man is one of the best all-around drummers I have ever heard; he plays a mean guitar, and you haven't heard him play bass; goddamn. As I am trying to learn drums, I watch Pete. He is one of those guys who you watch with a grin and say, "How did he do that?" But, I don't think we take it too seriously. But, I will add, this Petrovich kid is a diamond in the rough. He has the potential to do some pretty creative things and I can't wait to watch him develop musically. That being said, I think once you start to take art or music seriously, it isn't art or music anymore; it becomes a job, a thought process. Anytime you take things too seriously it becomes dull and problematic. The one thing I've heard the most about TMN is we are great people and not just a great band. We just like to have fun and in the process play music. So to sum it up, as I've said before, Pete, Dinis, Alex, and I are brothers above anything else; we just happen to have a blast making heavy-ass music.

The Gauntlet: What types of things are going through your mind during a live performance? What about afterward? Do you find that playing live help you to vent some of your aggressions? Do you view the live experience as therapeutic?

Big Andy Campbell: For me, music is definitely therapy; a form of self- expression. Most people assume I am a very aggressive person because of the way I beat the drums or simply because I am a big guy. I play so aggressive because that is the way I learned. Trinidad from Dixie Witch and JP Gastor from Clutch are two huge influences on how I play the drums. I watched these guys annihilate the drum kit and I wanted to be a part of that. So, yea, it comes off as pent up aggression but in reality, I just hit hard. During the show, I tend to not think. When I do think during a set, I mess up. Sometimes I think, not about the song structure, but about how great it is to be playing music, about my brothers in Iraq, or about my family. After the show, I usually think about how green the grass is on the left-coast.

The Gauntlet: Do you see the extreme music scene as oversaturated? These days, it seems that everybody has a band. In many ways this makes it even more difficult for the best of the artists to have their creative voice heard. Do you view this as a challenge for groups that are touring and doing this sort of thing as a profession?

Big Andy Campbell: The extreme music scene is so oversaturated right now with absolute shit. It's like a cookie cutter of crap went through and made crappy cookies on the radio for everyone to indulge. Hell, I don't even know if you can classify half of this crap as music. This does make it difficult for better bands to rise to the top because the better bands aren't the "radio" bands. I think the music industry works in circles and soon there will be another "Seattle wave" so to speak that brought us Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana. I was really hoping DOWN was going to help push real "heavy" music to the forefront; I still believe they can, with proper support. Sometimes, you can hear COC and Clutch played on the radio, a step in the right direction. If there was any good to come out of Dime's tragic assassination, it is that it united the metal-underground. It's almost as if there is an unspoken revival, a unity happening which we cannot see or speak of in fear of it dissolving. This saturation is hard on touring bands; hell, it was hard on this last tour. Because none of the bands are on the radio or MTV, the masses didn't know or even seemingly care about the tour. Just the diehard undergrounders who had a confidence, a sense of the revival. A lot of the fans had a glow about them which seemed to hint they knew of it; they could feel it. It's bands like TMN, DOWN, and Grand Magus who have to carry this light, this hope of revival into the 21st Century while we critically listen to our elders like St. Vitus, Entombed, and Crowbar as they bestow lessons learned into the hearts of fellow heavy-music purists.